Comment: Recd your wonderful card...it reminded me of a card I had recd from a boy in the 1950's. Nice memories. also loved the stickers and PC. Thanks for sharing. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Season.bearnbabs

Comment: oh wow, this package is so wonderful, really made my day! Lucky us that my initials had P, so you could go completely with postcard :DD They are all suck perfect choices for me, really, I wish I could give more than 1 heart! <3

Comment: Thanks for all these gorgeous PCs! I love the Ocean View Road! Is your sand this red color? Ours is black! I collect sands from all over. Next time we swap, would you send me a tiny ziplock bag with some and label where it is from? Thanks too for the extra Australian animal stickers! Hugs from Alaska, Sherry

Comment: Again thank you for sharing your local arthors. I haven't read any of Geoffrey McGeachin books, but I love Mysteries. So I will definitely look this one up. I also loved everything you sent, especially the Australian stickers and PC's. Hope you have a wonderful nday and a wonderful Holiday season. bearnbabs

Comment: Update: Your resend arrived safe and sound - what a terrific assortment of crafty goodness! All the stickers are great, especially the Aussie glitters! The very generous cards of washi samples will find their way onto my mail art soon.Thank you also for the pretty stationery and kitty cards. Many thanks for a Great Mail Day!

Response: Oh my goodness, that's horrible! I'm so sorry that has happened. I always make sure that all edges are sealed :( So disappointing that somewhere along the way, it has been opened! I will get another one out to you straight away. I'm so sorry!
EDIT: Resending on September 20.

Comment: Thank you so much for the stickers and I loved loved loved the envelope and everything. Sorry this a day late I got sooo busy at work. But i loved it all I especially love the cupcake paper pin!

Comment: Hi Melanie! Thank you for the interesting book pc and for the share about what you were reading! I also have a pile of TBR!! Must be like that for most readers! LOL! I go to sales and think I will not pick up a book but somehow one always makes it home with me! LOL! Hugs, Happy Reading and Swapping! ;)

Comment: It's so wonderful to receive a postcard all the way from Australia! Great "resolutions" for the year. I started listening to so many more books than before, I've been crocheting afghans and listen whilst I work. Love thos murder mysteries! Thanks for the card.

Comment: Such a lovely surprise to receive your package for Christmas on my birthday. Lovely goodies inside too. The cards are particularly gorgeous. Iâ€™m going to use one today for a swap letter. So much appreciated. Thanks for the swap once again.

Comment: Thank you for sharing. The book sounds intriguing, because my own experience of being was very different. Here, when we get to academic studies we are much older, spending years after High School at the Army service.

Comment: It's always nice to see people you look up to so I'm happy you got tho meet Mr. Barnes :) your bf looks happy in the pic, I wish we'd have warm weather still but no such luck XD (sorry for my late rate, I've been under the weather and fell behind on ratings)

Comment: I can relate to not seeing someone as often as I would like to, my closest friends apart from my sister and one other person live nearly 500km away from me so we don't see IRL very often, but when we do it's such a blast! I'm happy you're feeling better, good luck with you cardmaking :) (sorry for my late rate, I've been under the weather and fell behind on ratings)

Comment: Thank you for sharing info on the two "Dewey" books, Melanie! I might have to look into them. I am not a HUGE lover of cats, being allergic to them, but I do enjoy cat stories! (Living vicariously, don't you know?) :-) Thanks again for sharing!!!

Comment: Sydney does look like a very cool place to visit, but I'm always a little nervous when I hear about their insects, snakes, frogs .... but I have heard many great things about it and I probably would not turn down the opportunity to go if it was given to me. Thank you for the great postcard and I hope you can opportunity to go there again.

Comment: Oh my goodness now I wish I had BBQ shapes!! I am so so happy they brought the original flavours back. I was devastated when they changed them ahah. ANYWAY. Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOO much for the awesome awesome stickers!!! I am overwhelmed by how suited they are to my likes as well I pretty much went "yass" to every sheet haha. Thanks for sharing Melanie ^_^

Comment: I'm sorry you weren't able to finish The Cuckoo's Calling, Melly. But I'm glad to hear you're loving it so far! A fat amputee is the lead in that book? That has me rather excited to read it, and I was not interested in reading it at all before reading your thoughts! :-) I loved the book you picked for me. (I just sent you my thoughts - finally!) Thank you! And thank you for sharing! (I'd love to hear your thoughts once you've finished the book, and if you read books two and three, too, if you'd like to share them with me.) :-) <3

Comment: Well, fun swap :) Thanks for sharing your read, I'm intrigued! I too have mmore than one book going at most times, as I want to read non-fiction, but get impatient with it :D I love your cozy nook! I too would love to have a nook :)

Comment: Hey! I had bronchitis recently too! I threw me off of my typical swap schedule! 100 books is a lot, but you sound like you are well on your way! I checked my reading list for the year and I'm at 30 this year! I listen to my books at work though.

Comment: Thank you so much, Melly!! You did GREAT and should not stress too much about coming in a little short - I did too! The stickers are SO adorable and very generous of you - they will be put to very good use!!

Comment: Thank you so much for the adorable fairy penguin postcard! I got to see them doing their march from the sea in Australia when I was six and it was amazing, very memorable. It's been so hot here I've been counting down to autumn...I guess the weather is always better in another season. :-)

Comment: Thank you for your thoughts-so-far on The Winter Sea, Melly! I would love to hear your final thoughts on it when you are able to complete it, whenever that might be. :-) I'm sorry to hear that you were ill in July! I hope you are feeling much better now. (???) :-) All the best and thank you for sharing!

Comment: Well done this month, nearly 109 miles! I hope all goes well with the orthotic and you can go bike riding. Hope you can swim to your heart's content! Thank you for generously sending multiple flat surprises--stationery, envelopes, stamps, and an ATC! I was especially tickled to see the 2013 USA Global Forever Stamp. That's my favorite design, and I miss it!

Comment: Its fun to get a packet of hearts from Australia ~ and I love all of them!......
I've been to Melbourne, a long time ago, and then we drove all the way up to Brisbane. It was a really great trip!

Comment: Thanks for the postcard choice--something I know very little about. I can sew a lined professional suit jacket and lined skirt, but designing anything is beyond my creative and drawing skills! I will definitely try to remove the postage stamp of the queen and Prince Phillip!

Comment: I always wanted to be a librarian so I'm kinda jealous you'll get to work in a library! All the best for the 2 weeks :) and happy late birthday to your nephew, my niece will turn 5 in August :)

Comment: Thank you for this postcard, too, Melanie! I hope the mothers you bought gifts for enjoyed them! I myself forgot all about Mother's Day. I think I remembered about it the day after, though it might have been two days later. :-( But...my Mom's birthday is also in May. THAT I remembered! I took her out to dinner. :-) Anyway, I like both this postcard and the other you sent in this one envelope. They're kind of an odd size, and the subjects are great! Thank you for sharing! :-)

Comment: Thank you for the postcard, Melanie! Have you finished City on Fire? What did you think? I can't remember if I put that book on my TBR or not, but if you liked it, I will read it someday! Thank you so much for sharing! :-)

Comment: Thanks for a fantastic recommendation of Mosquitoland by David Arnold, Melanie! That book doesn't seem like my type of book, but after this recommendation... Well, I have added it to my TBR! :-) Thank you for sharing!

Comment: Hi Melanie! Somewhere you said...and I agree! We sure ARE partnered a lot! :-) Anyway, as for this swap, 21 libraries? 21?!?! Wow! I think my max number was three! Also, you have a "hidden book nook"? Pictures, please! I'm so envious...I would love to see what it looks like so that I can read there vicariously. :-) And "Itâ€™s very rare for me to stop reading a book part-way or half-way through, but if I do, itâ€™s because" ... because why? ??? This sentence just ended and I really want to know why! :-) Lastly, tropes are pretty much the things you most love (or hate) to see in books. Things like how I despise romances between meek/weak-willed women and uber-alpha/macho men, as an example. (I had a whole long list in mine, -haha-) :-) Thank you for sharing!

Comment: So sorry for the late rate - I just found a small bundle of mail in my bag as I was cleaning it out.
I love the postcard you sent and I hope you're enjoying the swimming and still doing it. I haven't been swimming for years but want to get back into it too.

Comment: Loved the list, I was already familiar with Linkin Park, Disturbed and some 30STM but now I found some more bands to check out! And Kisschasy - Dinosaur was so unexpectedly adorable :)
Sorry for the late rating!

Comment: I'm sorry that neither book was to your taste, Melanie. That was a bummer to hear. I have read Pride and Prejudice before, so maybe I'd enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies more than you did? Worth a try, I suppose. Not sure if I want to try Gone Girl. :-/ Thank you for sharing! :-)

Comment: Awesome Die-cuts - love the birdcage, cupcakes, deer, bells and more! This was a fun swap. Sorry for the late rating, I thought I had done this one and it ended up in the wrong stack. Take care, Annette

Comment: Sorry for the late rating. Thanks so much for your e-mail. I love hearing about things that are making people happy. I'd love to hear more about and see your stall and a huge congrats on the weight you've been losing

Comment: The windmill is the symbol of Pea Soup Anderson's restaurant, where we usually stop on the way home from Santa Barbara---it's the halfway point. The kitchen photo was taken with my cell phone's panorama function.

Comment: Thank you (again) for the wonderful die cuts! I loved the second batch as much as the first and they will be perfect for handmade cards. I actually got the same person as one of my partners for both of these die cut swaps as well. Funny how that works sometimes...

Comment: Thank you for recommending Burial Rites, Melanie! I think this is the second time I've heard from you about this book. I guess you really love it! I think I already have it on my Goodreads TBR from your first mention of it, but this recommendation to read it will have me seeing if my library has it or can get it! (They do have it! I placed it on hold.) :-) Thank you for sharing!

Comment: Thanks for all the great cards, Melanie! Love that stamp too (red with animal outline-is that a platypus or what?). I have cousins all over Victoria found doing genealogy research and want to visit there sometime soon.

Comment: What cute stickers! Love the woodland animals, insects happy fruits, zoo & all the others! What a generous swap!! Ill stick a few of my very favorites on a tiny beer fridge I put stickers on and the rest are a lovely size to use on pcs, which is how I use most of my stickers. Thank you for the PCs, I live them both but the b&w with color splashed team is the best!

Comment: Oh my gosh Melanie! I received your envelope today! Thank you so so much for everything! You included way more things that we agreed! I am so happy with this swap! Specially with the writing letter sets! I cant find any where I live :) Thank you again and hope we can trade again in the future!

Comment: Hi Melanie! Thank you for the lovely share - your notecard is so pretty! I will have to see if your book is available in the US - sounds like something I might enjoy! I am not a huge fan of historical fiction but I do enjoy when folks recommend a book, as I like to share that with my Book Club gals! I read Vingar Girl - it was a modern twist on The Taming of the Shrew and I really enjoyed it but others in the book club did not, which was ok because if everyone like the same stuff, life would get boring! LOL! Hugs, Happy Reading and Swapping! ;)

Comment: I'm sorry to hear that The Case of the Missing Books was disappointing for you, Melanie, but I must admit, you've made me very curious about it! :-) I love your stationery! Did you print it yourself or did you find it for purchase somewhere? Thank you for sharing! :-)

Comment: Thank you for sharing your blog. Burial Rights is actually on my 'to read' Goodreads list! I think I'll be looking it for it sooner rather than later. I enjoy historical fiction and I love Iceland so it combines those perfectly.

Comment: Sorry for the late rate - trying to catch up after 2 weeks offline! I love the things you did. I will definitely check out your reading challenge - love reading, and everyone should have that joy! Thanks for sharing!

Comment: I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed Pretty Girls despite a rather rough first 300 pages. (!!!) I haven't read anything by Karin Slaughter, yet. Would you recommend this book as my starter? Or, which is your favorite? :-) Thank you for reading my pick for you and for sharing your thoughts on it! :-)

Comment: Belated, belated thank you for the lovely, calming view of St. Kilda and for sharing more about yourself, Melanie! (I thought I was up-to-date in rating but this morning found a stack of mail mislaid by my family.) I also dislike marshmallows (I remember having to witness a game of Chubby Bunny, which I thought was a waste and grotesque sight, at a party in college), and I also much prefer grocery and almost any kind of shopping over clothes! And of course I also love cats =^_^= How wonderful that you are part of such a comprehensive library network! Thank you again for bringing a bright spot to my day, and I hope our paths cross again soon :)

Comment: Thanks Melanie for share Leo!
He is so handsome, I really happy that you adopted him from a shelter.
I give you a heart because you know you have problems with pictures and did the word, also put the amazing Fotos of Leo

Comment: Love the postcard and thanks for the book recommendation. Can't go past a good crime especially Australian! If you're into those books I read: Australia's Hardest Prison: Inside the Walls of Long Bay Jail by James Phelps. True crime book from prisoners and prison guards. AMAZING!

Comment: Melanie...what a lovely packaged Chrissie pressie! This collection I have is becoming so enticing to open! Yours is not making it any easier! But, I am being very good, how about you? Thank you so much, take care Mel ðŸ˜Šâ¤ï¸

Comment: Ok, you get a big ol' heart for Sifl and Olly. WOW, that is a blast from the past. My brother and I would watch that show religiously back when it was on MTV, along with a little... herbal assistance. ;) Haha!! I'll be watching some episodes tonight on YouTube in blissful nostalgia. Thanks for the list!

Comment: Hi Melly! Thank you so much for the lovely spring package. Love the embellishments, stickers and writing paper, and the bookmark comes in very handy. One can never have enough bookmarks. :) I only wish our weather would be a bit more spring-like. Take care and don't get washed away.

Comment: Hi there stranger...thank you so much for the fab PC. I've never visited there, so it was great to see.
Glad all is going well for you atm, you take care and we'll catch up again soon. Cheers Mel ðŸ˜Šâ¤ï¸

Comment: Hi and thank you for your photographs, unfortunately I can see only one in my email...the other are just empty white boxes, I don't know why :( I would like to see all of them, it is very interesting to see how the abandoned places look :)

Comment: Belated thank you for the gorgeous, vivid Melbourne tram card (I am still missing Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries so hard right now and wishing that somehow, the costume exhibition would come to the US!) and recommendation of The Survivors, Melanie! Hope you are having a good Sunday! x

Comment: Holy cow! Thank you so very much. The Washi was awesome! How in the world did it get here so fast? The last time I sent something to Austrsilia it literally took 22 days to get there!
Love it!
PS. Sorry for the late rating. I just got a reminder. I didn't hit "save rating" I'm such a newb. ðŸ˜¬

Comment: I enjoyed looking through your rainbow board and seeing what rainbow means to you! A great assortment of pins, many of which I'll be pinning onto my board :) I love all the rainbow cake ideas!

Comment: Thank you for the cute koala. My work is in application architecture and much of my work is information architecture and technology to support an IA design. I made a joke the other day that my next career is likely to be as a professional declutterer because I'm helping friends with this. Just stuff rather than ideas.

Comment: Hi Melanie! Thank you for the comment. I can't believe you have over 600 postcards, I'd love to get there someday :) and yes I collect stamps from all over the world. I inherited my great uncle's stamp collection and my obsession grew from there. Happy swapping!

Comment: I loved your reading log! I have read two of the books on it (The Rosie Project andThe Rosie Effect) and oh oops! I've also read Fried Green Tomatoes... Anyway, a couple more are on my list of books I want to read; Brooklyn, and Looking for Alaska. After reading your log, I might add a couple more! Thanks!

Comment: Thanks a lot for your comment! I don't think that 600 are just a few cards! And as you say - collections are always growing :D And yeah, I used to love to go to the library, when I was still living at home I went 1-2 times a week. But now I moved and the library is really far away, so I don't go that often nowadays^^

Comment: Thank you Melanie for the great postcard. ðŸ˜‹ It looks amazing with all of the different colors. I've been doing the Lost Ocean ones and they have a lot of fine detail too. It drives me a little crazy working on them but they usually come out pretty good so I guess it's worth it.
Have an awesome day,
Nathan

Response: Thanks Nathan :) I'm glad you like it! I find gel pens are the easiest to use on the postcards because of the fine details!

Comment: I love your Cake Board! They're all so pretty. :-) They look wonderful and sound yummy. And that Cookie Jar Cake! I cannot believe it's a cake...and edible! W-O-W! I also checked out your other boards and followed you. You have lots of interesting Boards/Pins! :-)

Comment: Thanks for sharing, Melly! That's a great picture and it was nice to see you smiling. And I love your new glasses! Next time I get MY eyes checked, I'll try to remember you and update my frames, too. I'm pretty sure I'm closing in on a decade of wearing my current ones. Thanks for the inspiration! :-)

Response: Thank you so much!! Make sure you pick frames that you like :)

Comment: More happy mail from Down Under! Thanks, Melanie, for the bookmarks. I especially love the BFG quote- Don't gobblefunk around with words. That was the first chapter book I read aloud to my 3rd graders this year. Take care! -Rhonda

Comment: Melanie, thanks for joining this swap and for reading my profile. Which herbs do I like? Lavender, rosemary, and mint are among my favs. Have used a buncha rosemary for making stove-top potpourri during the holidays ..and will on into winter. Storing PCs is still a decision ...planning to get a big ring to see if this "roledex" style might work well. Cheers for your NEW YEAR...ðŸŒŸjinanne

Response: No worries :) I've filled up a 500-slot photo album with postcards, and still have well over 150 postcards waiting for somewhere to be stored!

Comment: Melanie, I got your parcel this morning. It is just wonderful! It's like having another advent and I'm really looking forward to the beginning of each month this year. I found your first letter beautifully written and very thoughtful. Hope this swap runs next year!

Response: Thank you so much! I'm glad it arrived safely :) I hope you enjoy everything I have sent to you!

Comment: Thank you for the awesome menus. I am now STARVING!!!! And you recommended ice cream to me, so I recommend the Connoisseur Raspberry and White Chocolate. Had it last night and my friend had to take the tub away from me lol

Comment: Thank you for sharing your volunteering experiences! It sounds like you are very involved in your community. We have a group of skaters in our community that are part of the organization Skate for Change that does something similar to what you've done with the bag distribution. They put together backpacks full of items to distribute and then head downtown on their skateboards to hand them out. I'm hoping they do the same with feminine products, as well! I appreciate how enthusiastic you are about the work that you do. :)

Response: Thank you so much! I like the sound of Skate for Change. It's awesome!!!!

Comment: Hi Melanie! TY for the share - I hope your housing and health issues get resolved sooner than later. It is tough when we don't feel good very often! Wishing you all the best on your hopes and dreams! Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours! Hugs and Happy Swapping! ;)

Response: Thank you so much :) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too!

Comment: The Galahs are beautiful. I love to watch hummingbirds as they flit about chasing each other in the desert of Arizona. I love the chirping noise they make too. Those are probably my favorite birds.

Response: I'm glad you like them :) I haven't seen a hummingbird before! But I did get to see some galahs today.

Comment: Thank you for the PC of Luna Park Melanie, it is so cute. I have about 110 PC's from Postcrossing and many more from Swap-Bot (I haven't counted them). It is so much fun isn't it? I hope we swap again :D

Response: It is lots of fun! I need to organise all of my postcards as they're a bit everywhere at the moment. Hopefully we do swap again!

Comment: Thank you for the pretty card from Melbourne. You can look me up on Goodreads by my name. I looked you up but there was no one listed for Australia. I love that site. Friend me so we can see what each is reading.

Response: Thanks Judee :) My name on Goodreads is Melly Franklin as it's connected to my Facebook. I have sent you a friend request. I'm glad you like the card I sent you!

Comment: Thank you for the 'onto my wishlist' cards ;-) and the extras! The eagle is for my son: his favorite animal, and the koala and turtles...very cute! And the bike-stamp, I love it! If I could give 2 hearts, you got it

Comment: You did send to me recently, I think we get each other a lot because we both love the PC swaps =D Your cats sound adorable. It's hard for me to choose an animal I like the most because I love so many. =]

Comment: I love the penguins card! As for the true or false, I think the truth is that you had a hip replacement last year. I guessed that one because of something they taught us in a class I had a long time ago about how most left-handed people's letter Ts look. Did I choose the right one?

Response: That's right! I had a hip replacement in December last year. I'm glad you like the postcard!

Comment: Thank you so much for spoiling me! My son opened the envelope and was very excited when he saw the great stickers! Thanks for the nice letter too, was very kind of you to welcome me to swap- bot ðŸŒ»

Response: You're very welcome! :) I'm glad you and your son like the stickers.

Comment: I can't believe we were partners in this swap! What a small world! I have been penpalling for close to 3 years (probably longer) but what I can remember its been about 3 years. My postcrossing name and swap-bot name are the same as well! Thank you so much for the quick sending of your postcard and I think I have joined one of your swaps that you are co-ordinating!

Response: Awesome!! I'm glad the postcard arrived safely. I've been penpalling for 3 and a half years now. I will look for you on Postcrossing! Which swap have you joined?

Comment: I am so sorry for not acknowledging your postcard earlier. I fell behind at swap-bot and just hid my head in shame instead of trying to do something about it. Now it is a new year and since I really loved being a part of swap-bot I decided that I had to do something about it, since I still want to be part of it. I was so happy with my mailbox when I was part of swap-bot. Please forgive me!

Comment: Hi Melanie
Thanks for the great Youtube clips. I watched the drunk kitty quite a number of times, and the cats talking made my two cats go nuts, they searched everywhere for the cats.
Kind regards
Renee

Comment: Thank you Melanie for the postcard and also for being my first swap partner to send it to me,out of the ten I'm going to get. And you are in Australia and beat everyone on my list. Including 7 in U.S.A.

Comment: Thanks for the lovely card, I am lucky enough to have been to most of the places on that card :) I lived in Melbourne for a while! I hope that you get to see NSW one day soon, it is an amazing place!

Comment: Thank you for the letter! It was so interesting to get a letter from Austerilla. I really am intreguied by that part of the world. I will definatly be writing back to you soon, I just finished moving and cant even find a pen at this point, but as soon as things settle a little I will be writing back! :) Thank you again